KPP HAM to verify TNI's role in East Timor mayhem

KPP HAM to verify TNI's role in East Timor mayhem

JAKARTA (JP): The government-sanctioned Commission of Inquiry
into Human Rights Violations (KPP HAM) in East Timor is likely to
verify the alleged involvement of the Indonesian Military (TNI)
in the post-ballot violence in the territory, a team member said
on Saturday.

Human rights activist Munir said after completing its four-
month long investigation and questioning of a number of top
military top brass, the commission found evidence that military
personnel were either involved in or failed to prevent the
violence.

"It seems that military officers at almost all levels of
command will be held responsible for the violence, although there
are degrees of responsibility," he told The Jakarta Post.

However, Munir, who is also the coordinator of the Commission
for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), refused to
mention the names and ranks of the alleged officers.

Munir added that KPP HAM also found evidence to verify that
there was "physical violence, enforced displacement and a
campaign of destruction" in the territory after the August
ballot.

KPP HAM is scheduled to announce its findings by the end of
this month and will hand over the findings to Attorney General
Marzuki Darusman through the National Commission on Human Rights.

The military top brass questioned, including former TNI chief
Gen. Wiranto, have all denied the accusations, saying that the
violence was neither premeditated or controllable.

Munir's statement came as a team of six lawyers representing
the officers were in the East Timor capital of Dili to interview
members of the proindependence National Resistance Council for
East Timor (CNRT) and top United Nations and church officials.

The team, whose members include former justice minister Muladi
and noted lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution, arrived in the territory
on Thursday and was scheduled to spend four days in Dili.

One day before the lawyers' departure, foreign minister Alwi
Shihab left for New York in an effort to persuade UN Secretary-
General Kofi Annan not to proceed with an international tribunal
until the national probe was taken into account.

During their meeting here early in December last year, both
the UN and national inquiry teams acknowledged that they were of
the same conclusion that TNI was involved in the debacle.

Marzuki will also leave for New York on Saturday to meet with
top UN officials to discuss the progress of the international
inquiry on East Timor.

Marzuki is due to meet with U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke,
who is currently president of the UN Security Council, on
Tuesday.

Jakarta has objected to the establishment of a UN rights
inquiry on East Timor, saying it was capable of investigating
allegations of atrocities and human rights abuses, and would not
be bound by the UN findings.

Marzuki said earlier that if KPP HAM found evidence of rights
abuses, an ad hoc committee would be established to prosecute the
perpetrators in a national human rights tribunal.

Meanwhile a team of defense lawyers representing the military
generals on Sunday completed their search for evidence in East
Timor to support their clients.

However they were not able to get a single witness who would
testify on behalf of the military officials.

Adnan Buyung Nasution admitted that witnesses seemed resistant
when asked to testify for the defense.

"We have run into a snag because we have not found any
witnesses we can interview," he said in Dili as quoted by Antara.
(01/byg)